The Four Indian Kings

[Dietmar]

This site has high resolution views of the Haudenosaunee delegatation of 1710:

The four Indian kings first travelled to London in 1710 to meet Queen Anne as delegates of the Iroquoian Confederacy in an effort to cement an alliance with the British. Queen Anne was so impressed by her visitors that she commissioned their portraits by court painter John Verelst. The portraits are believed to be some of the earliest surviving oil portraits of Aboriginal peoples taken from life.

On October 16, 1977, a few months following the spectacular acquisition of these rare examples of Canadian history, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the exhibition of the portraits at the National Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada). The portraits were presented to the Canadian public alongside historical prints inspired by the works and other images of the four travellers, as well as the communion silver and Bible presented to the delegates by Queen Anne. In an interesting reversal of roles, the contemporary chiefs of the Mohawk people of the Bay of Quinte and those of the Six Nations Reserve, Ohsweken, Ontario, were present to greet Her Majesty in honour of her Silver Jubilee visit to Ottawa and the public presentation of the portraits to Canadians.

Some three hundred years after their original voyage and three decades after being acquired, the portraits have returned to London. Library and Archives Canada is pleased to lend these works to the National Portrait Gallery, where they will be showcased as part of the exhibition Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700 -- 1850, on view from March 8 to June 17, 2007.

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/virtual-vault/4-kings/026021-119.01-e.php

[clw]

Thanks, Deitmar! It's a fascinating exhibit -- taken me two days to explore it with dialup, but well worth the frustration.

I was surprised to see the square cross motif used in both the tattoos and the wampum belt. Anyone know about this?

The bow is so tiny, and I thought these people used a long bow much like the early British. Maybe the little bow was just a prop used by the painter.

"Kings" makes me smile. As if. And I see the name 'Brant' was already in use.

I would dearly love to read an evaluation of these paintings by someone who has studied this early culture. And can anyone recommend a historian who knows the period?

[clw]

The Four Indian Kings
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.

www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/4Chiefs.html

Peter Schuyler, a former mayor of Albany, a wealthy fur trader, and a member of the New York Indian Commission; took five Mohawk chiefs, of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, to London, England in 1710. Schuyler wanted them to ask for assistance against their French enemies. This was a purely political move for Schuyler. Aid from the motherland (England) would greatly improve his position in the colonies. The Iroquois held Schuyler in high regard. He was their special intermediary with the colonial government. One of the five original chiefs died on the ship before he could reach London. The other four had their portraits painted by artist Jan Verelst, an obscure Dutch artist. Jan Verelst was only one of the three artists employed for this job. Veresldt painted the chiefs as if they were European nobility. In each portrait they hold an object denoting their status. These paintings were housed in Kensington Palace, Queen Anne's London home. The Mohawks made a sensation all dressed in exotic apparel. The red cloaks were made for the chiefs upon their arrival and were gifts from Queen Anne. Queen Anne commissioned Jan Veresldt to paint these men in 1710, to commemorate their visit. The Veresldt paintings featured the chiefs each with its own hereditary clan animal at their side. These portraits are now housed in the Canadian British Nobility. Many nobles competed for the privilege of entertaining these "Four Indian Kings" as they were called.

It was said that the kings were almost two meters tall and had an imposing bearing and splendid physiques. The British court was still mourning the death of Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne's husband and King. The Kings wore black breeches, vests, and stockings and over this they wore a scarlet cloak trimmed with gold (in the Bernard Lens version).

The Four Kings visited the Tower of London and Saint Paul's Cathedral. They attended cockfights, bear fights, and wrestling matches. They even saw a Shakespearean play (MacBeth) at the Haymarket Theatre.

They had an audience with Queen Ann (reigned from 1702-1714), successor of William III and her sister, Mary II. The queen ordered the construction of a new fort and chapel, called Fort Hunter, along the Mohawk River. Queen Anne provided missionaries from the Church of England and she patronized the Mohawk mission. The missionaries devised a system of writing in the Mohawk language and religious literature was translated into Mohawk. Cheif Hendrick was said to one of the most faithful. In 1755, Hendrick was 70 years of age when he took 300 warriors to fight against the French alongside the English. He died in 1755, at age 70, at a battle site near Lake George in the Adirondacks.

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<---- "Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow" was the grandfather of Joseph Brant. Also at the site above are paintings done by a different artist during the same visit and information on each of the four chiefs.

[Gary]

Thanks, Dietmar and clw.

I found the pictures of the four chiefs interesting when I first saw reproductions of them years ago. My interest was renewed recently when I discovered that they had visited my home town of Southampton in 1710. The city council still has the council record of the visit which I saw a couple of years ago.

There is a really good little book on their trip to the UK called Queen Anne's American Kings, by Richmond P Bond. This was published in 1952 and is long out of print.

Gary